Welcome to the second instalment on Researching Your Irish Family History. Here, Nicola Morris explains how you can access civil registration records online to help trace your Irish ancestors.

From 1845 non-Catholic marriages in Ireland were registered with the civil authorities but it wasn’t until 1864 that registration of all births, deaths and marriages became compulsory. Even though civil registration was compulsory from 1864 it is estimated that up to 15% of births and marriages went unregistered in the early years of civil registration and as many as 30% of deaths were not registered with the civil authorities.

Births were usually registered by a family member, neighbour or midwife who had been in attendance. It was compulsory to register a birth within the first three months or a late registration fine was incurred. It is not uncommon to find a family who registered a child’s birth six months or more after the event but who changed the date of birth of the child to fall within the previous three months. This means that you may find evidence of a child who was baptised in March but whose birth registration gives a date of birth in September of the same year. The baptismal record is a more accurate reflection of the true date of birth of the child.

Birth registration

Some families did not register the births of their children either on time or late. This may have been because the fee for registration was beyond their means at the time. Births were registered locally in the registrar’s district.

These registers were then sent to Dublin to be copied. Some births were accidentally excluded from the Dublin copies during this process and are now missing from the national civil birth register. They can be found by inspecting the original registers, but most of these registers have now been archived and stored beyond access.

Birth registrations or certificates record the date and place of birth, the name and sex of the child, the name, address and occupation of the father and name and maiden name of the mother as well as the name and address of the informant. In some cases the relationship of the informant to the child is stated and you can sometimes find maternal grandmothers or aunts who were present and who registered the birth.

Marriage registration

The registration of marriages was the responsibility of the parish priest or celebrant of the marriage and it is not uncommon to find marriages in church registers that are missing from civil registers, an omission by the parish priest, who failed to inform the civil authorities of the marriage.

Marriage registrations or certificates are the most informative. They record the name and denomination of the church in which the marriage took place, the name, age, marital status, occupation and address of the bride and groom as well as the names and occupations of their fathers, the witnesses and the name of the minister who carried out the ceremony. Most 19th and early 20th century marriage certificates record the ages of the bride and groom as full, meaning that they are over 21 years of age. Those under 21 are referred to as minors or their age is given.

Witnesses to a marriage were often siblings, cousins or peers of the bride and groom, and much less frequently parents. Witnesses to the marriage of a minor may have been parents of the bride and groom.

Deaths were usually registered by a family member or neighbour who was present or by the administrator of a hospital or the institution where the death took place. Death registrations can be the least informative of the three registrations. A death certificate will record the date and place of death, the name, address, age, marital status and occupation of the deceased, cause of death and the name of the informant. The informant was not always a family member. Unlike Scottish, American and some Australian death registrations, no other family members are cited on an Irish civil death registration. The death registration of a person with a common name who died in a hospital or other institution, may not contain enough information to establish who they were or to identify their spouse or parents.

The records of civil registration for Ireland are held by the General Register Office. There is a public research room at Werburgh Street in Dublin city where researchers can search the index books for relevant entries. The index books commence in 1845 for non-Catholic marriages. From 1864 there are indexes for all births, deaths and marriages. Between 1864 and 1878 all entries for each year are listed alphabetically by surname, with some late registrations and overseas events written into the back of the book. From 1878 each book is divided into four quarters, so when doing a manual search you must make sure you check the book four times, and a fifth time for late and other entries at the back of the book.

There is a small fee for searching the index books in person at the General Register Office (€2 for 5 consecutive years) and a fee of €4 for each copy. However, if you cannot make it to Dublin you can access the majority of these records online.

The first set of records from the Irish General Register Office to be indexed formed part of the IGI (International Genealogical Index) where abstracts from birth registrations from 1864 up to about 1880 were transcribed. These records can be found on www.familysearch.org and at Ancestry UK. However, only the name of the child, date of birth and names of the parents appear in this collection and the townland address of the family and father’s occupation are not recorded, so the full birth registration should be sought for this additional information.

The Church of the Latter Day Saints, who hold microfilm copies of the civil birth, marriage and death index books have transcribed the index books from 1845 (non-Catholic marriages) up to 1958. These indexes were transcribed by volunteers and there are some errors and omissions. The late registration entries and overseas and army births, deaths and marriages are also excluded from this collection. They have been published online at www.familysearch.org and record the name of the party, the year and registration district, volume, page and quarter. The index reference is necessary to obtain a copy of the original registration. These can be ordered from https://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Apply-for-Certificates.aspx, but Timeline Genealogy Clerk offers a service whereby genealogical researchers who have found records in the index can order in a more straightforward way: https://timeline.ie/irish-genealogy-clerk/irish-bmd-records/.

The Irish Government website www.irishgenealogy.ie have published the indexes for civil registration as follows:

The original registers have also been published online for the following dates:

Births: 1864-1916Marriages: 1870-1941Deaths: 1878-1966

This means that if you find an index entry for a marriage in 1875 you can click through to the image of the original registration. This is a free website and there are no fees for searching, viewing or downloading the records.

The website www.rootsireland.ie represents the collections of church and civil records for each county heritage centre in Ireland. The records for each centre vary from county to county. Some counties have indexed the original birth, marriage and death registers using the local registration books. This means that an event that was recorded in the original local register but was not copied to the copy registers in Dublin might be found in this collection. This is a pay site and not every county is fully represented. It is worth investigating the extent of the collections for the county you are interested in before searching this site. However, if you do find this site holds relevant records for your research, you will find that the search function is very user friendly. It is possible to search the civil marriage records for all children who married with a father named Edward Murphy or all O’Connor deaths that took place in the townland of Cloncurry. This site is predominantly a collection of church records and we will tackle the many search options available in a later post on parish records.

The above are the main websites where researchers can access the records for civil registration for Ireland. After 1922 the records for Northern Ireland were kept separately and can be accessed online at GRONI: (General Register Office of Northern Ireland) https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/search-gronis-online-records where you will find all records relating to registration districts that became Northern Ireland from 1864 into the 20th century, with images of births over 100 years old, marriages over 75 years old and deaths over 50 years old.

If you are starting to investigate your Irish family history and your ancestor was born or married or died in Ireland after 1864, you will need to investigate the records of civil registration. The best place to start is with the two free websites www.familysearch.org and www.irishgenealogy.ie

The search engine atwww.familysearch.org takes into account a far broader variant spelling of surnames and a search of the “Ireland civil registration indexes 1845-1958” should give you quite a comprehensive list of index entries (bearing in mind that late registrations and overseas and army registrations will be missing from this collection). You can then compare this finding with the civil records listed for the same search at www.irishgenealogy.ie. The reason for this is that www.irishgenealogy.ie will only list results for a very specific spelling of a surname, with few variants. See how the two lists compare to make sure you are not missing birth, marriage or death entries on either site.

For example, the surname McDonagh comes in numerous variants; MacDonagh, McDonough, McDonogh, MacDonugh, etc. At www.irishgenealogy.ie you may find that only those index entries for McDonagh and McDonogh appear, while at www.familysearch.org you may find other variants such as MacDonough are also included. Surnames with the prefix Mc and O’ can also be a problem at www.irishgenealogy.ie. In some cases you may need to put a space between the prefix and the name, so Mc Donagh will turn up a different set of results to McDonagh. In some cases on both sites the names have been recorded as M’Donagh, making them harder to find.

By using the two indexes both of which are free to search online, you will get most comprehensive record of entries from the original index, including name variants. Always cast your net as wide as possible; it is easy to exclude people from your search as it progresses.

The only benefit to the indexes at Find My Past IE and Ancestry UK are their marriage finders. Both websites identify brides and grooms that were registered on the same page. This can make it easier to find a relevant marriage. However, the marriages published online at www.irishgenealogy.ie from 1870 to 1941 record the bride and groom in the index entry, bypassing the need for the Ancestry and Find My Past marriage finder for marriages during this particular period.

The records for civil registration are organised by Registration District. A registration district is the same as a Poor Law Union. This is because the dispensary doctors of the poor law union were usually the local registrars. If you are searching for ancestors in Ireland it is always helpful to know their registration district, making it much easier to identify relevant civil birth, marriage and death records. Just because your ancestor married in Co. Kilkenny, does not mean that their marriage will be registered in the registration district called Kilkenny. Co. Kilkenny contains several other registration districts.

Each registration district is divided into registrar’s districts, but the registrar’s district is not used in the General Register office indexes. However, it is used on the website www.rootsireland.ie so it may be helpful to identify the registrars’ districts within each registration district.

If you have a townland address for your family or if you have identified them in the 1901 or 1911 census in Ireland, you can find the Union or Registration District in which they were living by checking the index of townlands or take a look at the enumerators return on the census, which will record the townland, civil parish, registration district and county. You can also use the place name search on John Grenham’s website; www.johngrenham.com where you will find lists of all townlands in each poor law union (registration district) or you can search by townland to identify the registration district in which it is located. This site will also list the registrar’s districts within each registration district or union.

Bear in mind that marriages usually took place in the parish of the bride, so will most likely be registered in her home registration district. Deaths were registered in the district where the death took place. For example, I found a death registration for a man who died on the side of the road while travelling back from the market in Dundalk, Co. Louth, to his home in Monaghan. His death was registered in Dundalk, where he died, making him very difficult to find when his death did not appear in his local registration district.

Although a townland address may have officially been located in one registration district, the address may have been more convenient to a neighbouring district. If you don’t find your ancestor in the district in which they should have been registering events, it may be worth trying the neighbouring districts, even if they cross a county border.

It is always worth obtaining a copy of the original registration. Many published family trees on websites like Ancestry simply contain a reference to the index entry, confirming that a birth or marriage was registered with the civil authorities. The actual registration or certificate will contain a great deal more information and sometimes surprising clues, such as the name of an informant or an address or occupation, which may prove beneficial to your research. The fact that the majority of these records are freely available online means that there is no excuse for not tracking down the original registration, if, of course, the event was actually registered.

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Nicola Morris M.A.G.I is a professional genealogist and member of Accredited Genealogists Ireland. She is the director of Timeline Research Ltd, one of Ireland’s leading genealogical research companies. Nicola has undertaken the Irish research for WDYTYA? in the UK and US and has appeared in numerous episodes. She was also the presenter of the first series of the Genealogy Roadshow broadcast in Ireland in 2011.

In the first of six guest posts on Researching your Irish Family History, Nicola Morrisdescribes how to go about tracing your Irish ancestry.

The fallacy that I frequently hear about Irish family history research is that it is impossible because all of the records were destroyed. This is far from true. Yes, some vital records were destroyed, and these losses can make Irish family history research challenging and frequently frustrating, but there are plenty of sources that do survive, you just need to know where to find them.

Let’s start with what was actually destroyed and what survives. The most significant loss of records for Irish genealogy are the 19th century census returns. A census was undertaken in Ireland every decade from 1821. The returns for 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 were destroyed by Government order during the First World War, possibly because of a paper shortage. The remaining 19th century returns from 1821 to 1851 were largely destroyed in the 1922 Public Records Office fire. While this is a tremendous loss, it is not insurmountable. Irish genealogists have spent the last century identifying potential census substitutes that document the population during the same period. The 1901 and 1911 census survives intact and efforts are underway to have the 1926 census released by 2022.

The two other great losses from the 1922 Public Records Office fire are the large portion of Church of Ireland parish registers that were destroyed and testamentary records. However, as the majority of the Irish population was Roman Catholic and few owned enough property to leave bequests, these records only apply to a small portion of the Irish population.

The records for civil registration in Ireland, which commenced in 1864 when it became compulsory to register all births, deaths and marriages, survive in full. Roman Catholic parishes retained their own records and although the extent of surviving records varies from parish to parish, nearly every parish in Ireland is documented from at least the mid-19th century and in many cases from the 1830s and earlier. Many of these records are now available online on a number of different websites and in the articles to follow we will take a much closer look at how to find and search these sources for evidence of your Irish ancestors.

Before starting a search for your family in Ireland it is always sensible to try and gather as much information about them as possible from the records for the country in which they settled. Research in Ireland is most productive if you can focus on a specific area. Families with common surnames can be distinguished one from the other using their address. Establishing a county, parish or town and address for your ancestors before you start research in Ireland will make your research that little bit easier.

It is a good idea to try and establish where and when your Irish ancestor was born and the names of their parents and siblings and even extended family before you start. This help to locate the correct family in Ireland and avoids the danger of adopting the wrong Irish ancestors. I have met too many people who have plucked a person out of a database of Irish records because they have the correct name and were born at about the right time, but after years of research, turn out to belong to a different family.

Try to locate your Irish born ancestor in every UK census return. Returns for some years may state a county or even town of birth in Ireland. While it may only state Ireland as a place of birth in 1881, the 1891 return or 1911 return may give a more specific address.

Obtain a marriage certificate for your Irish born ancestor if they married in the UK, this should state their father’s name and occupation and possibly whether the father was alive at the time of marriage. Check the civil marriage certificate to see if the couple married in a Roman Catholic Church. Some Roman Catholic parish marriage registers, particularly in the later 19th century, recorded the names of both parents of the bride and groom.

More recent death certificates in the UK record a date and place of birth and the maiden name of a married woman. While the given dates of birth are not always accurate, they can be a good guide for when your Irish ancestor was born.

Roman Catholic baptismal records for the children of your Irish born ancestor should record the names of sponsors or Godparents to a baptisms. Sponsors with the same surname may have been siblings of your ancestor who also emigrated. Census returns and marriage and death certificates for siblings of your ancestor may contain more clues about the family’s origins in Ireland. It is also worth looking for the parents of your Irish born ancestor in UK census returns. While the parents may not have emigrated with their children, it is not uncommon to find the widowed mother settling with one of her married children in the UK later in her life, or following the death of her husband in Ireland. Cousins and aunts and uncles can also show up in census returns providing more potential clues to your Irish born ancestor’s origins.

Civil registration in Ireland only commenced in 1864 and is a complete record of all births, marriages and deaths from that date, although not all events were registered with the civil authorities. If you can find a member of your Irish born ancestor’s family who might have been born or married in Ireland after 1864, this is the person to pursue first. For example, should you find a niece of nephew of your ancestor who was born in Ireland in 1872 and is living in the house of your ancestor in the UK by 1891, they should be pursued. If their Irish birth certificate can be located, it will provide an address for their family, which is very likely in the vicinity of your own ancestor’s family. This will allow you to focus your Irish research on records for a specific area.

For example, a man named James Kelly, was born in Ireland in about 1858 and settled in England. In the 1901 census his niece, Mary Gallagher, was residing in his household with her husband and children. Her children were born in England. A birth certificate for one of Mary’s children established her maiden name was Cooney. No record was found for her marriage in England, but a search of the Irish civil marriage index found her marriage in Ireland. The marriage certificate established her address and father’s name. A record of her birth was found, which confirmed her mother’s maiden name as Kelly. The marriage of Mary’s parents in Ireland identified the father of James Kelly and James’ sister’s family address. Although this was a round-about way of locating the family, we did not know enough about James Kelly from UK records to be able to locate his birth in Ireland. It was the details relating to his niece that identified the correct family.

Outside of large urban areas like Manchester and Liverpool, it is also worth looking at the other Irish emigrants who settled in the same place. They may have come from the same area in Ireland.

Researching the wider community and their origins may lead to a specific location in Ireland. Family or community groups may have emigrated to work in a specific industry. They may have been employed in the same industry in Ireland. It is possible that they were tenants of the same landowner, who held property in both Ireland and England.

Some occupational records can state a place of birth. British Army service records, for example, should state the soldier’s county and parish of birth in Ireland.

Once you have scoured UK records and built a detailed profile of your Irish born ancestor you are ready to start searching for evidence of them in Ireland.

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Nicola Morris M.A.G.I is a professional genealogist and member of Accredited Genealogists Ireland. She is the director of Timeline Research Ltd, one of Ireland’s leading genealogical research companies. Nicola has undertaken the Irish research for WDYTYA? in the UK and US and has appeared in numerous episodes. She was also the presenter of the first series of the Genealogy Roadshow broadcast in Ireland in 2011.

Next week, Nicola explores Irish records of Civil Registration in more detail, including where to find them online and tips for how to get the best out of the information available.

Some reseachers have - rightly - questioned why Free UK Genealogy has 'UK' in its name as we have, until recently, not transcribed records created in Northern Ireland.

The UK in our name reflects ambition rather than the actuality of the three projects which are currently providing data (FreeBMD - England and Wales, FreeCEN - England and Wales, Scotland and Crown Dependencies, and FreeREG - England and Wales, Scotland, and Crown Dependencies). This is not to say that we do not have data relating to Northern Ireland. It is most easily accessible on the original FreeCEN website, where you can search by place of birth. For example, Harriett Smith, a widow born in Argmagh, was working as a servant in Nottingham in 1891:

You can currently search on freecen2.freecen.org.uk by Northern Irish county, and Eire counties will be added shortly. You cannot, currently, search by place of birth within any county - we would love to hear from you about how we can best help you to search for Irish ancestors, so please fill in the survey there. Sadly, the early censuses of Ireland have rarely survived. We would like to work with the National Archives of Ireland, who hold those fragments which remain, to enable the early censuses to be transcribed, and their data for the 1901 and 1911 to be shared on FreeCEN.

On FreeREG, we have recently been given transcriptions of registers in Co. Fermanagh, and these are the start of our coverage for Northern Ireland. Country Coordinator Sandra Adams-West is contacting record-holders and recruiting new transcribers (head over to https://www.freereg.org.uk/cms/opportunities-to-volunteer-with-freereg if you would like to help out).

Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths started in Ireland in 1864. Records are searchable at https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk/, but in a very limited form. We would like to work with the government of Northern Ireland, to enable searching across the UK (in FreeBMD), which would make their data more discoverable while enabling them to retain their income from pay-per-view to the certificates. We are hoping to transcribe registration of Birth, Marriage and Death from military contexts and these include instances of events in Ireland. For example one folio of the Registry of Marriages, Births and Baptisms, C Brigade Royal Horse Artillery. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11665645 begins with a marriage at Charlemont, Armagh, in 1889, and ends with the birth of their daughter in Aldershot the following year. This is a good example of a record which is currently inaccessible, as it has not been digitised

So while we do not yet have much from Northern Ireland we have a little, and plans to do a great deal more. we would be delighted to hear from any organisation with such records that they would like us to transcribe.

Free UK Genealogy is a charity dedicated to providing free public access to family history records. We do this through our dedicated team of volunteers who transcribe public records such as the indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Parish Registers and Censuses.
The Charity also actively campaigns to improve access to public history through its commitment to making data available as Open Data.

FreeUKGenealogy Projects

Unless otherwise specified, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication, but please consider giving us credit and linking back (if on the web).
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